1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a remote control system and an appliance for use in the remote control system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Audiovisual (AV) appliances, including DVD (digital versatile disc) recorders and digital TV receivers, are usually operated using a remote controller or an interface presented on a display.
Recently, however, as the functions of those AV appliances have been further diversified, their remote controllers have had an increasing number of buttons. Consequently, those buttons have become smaller and smaller, so have the labels indicating the functions associated with those buttons. Likewise, the interface presented on the screen has become even more complicated and sometimes overly detailed, too. For example, since the digital broadcasting launched, most remote controllers now have additional buttons for using electronic program guides and interactive services. Consequently, the number of remote controllers with 30 or more buttons has been on the rise. As the required operation has been complicated in this manner, a system for controlling an AV appliance using a plurality of remote controllers was proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-354561, for example.
However, not every user has the required skill to operate such AV appliances easily by manipulating those numerous buttons. That is why each of those AV appliances should provide various degrees of operability and visibility to please users with various levels of operational skills, including those who can hardly use the appliances by themselves and those who can use them easily. That is to say, the AV appliances should not only provide high degrees of visibility and operability for aged users and those who need only simple conventional functions but also fill the needs of users who want to use those advanced functions fully.
If the user wants to use a remote controller with a smaller number of bigger buttons, which is specially designed for non-skilled or aged users, not the remote controller with those complicated functions, he or she has to purchase such a simple remote controller separately from the AV appliance itself. Also, to use the separately purchased, simple remote controller, the user needs to make settings of the remote controller and the AV appliance by himself or herself. Furthermore, to change the interface presented on the screen into an easily usable one, the user has to change the settings of the AV appliance by himself or herself.
Besides, in conventional AV appliances, even if the user changes the remote controllers to use while an interface is being dealt with, the display state of the interface (e.g., the size of the interface on the screen) does not change automatically. Accordingly, to change the display states of the interface, the user has to close the window of the interface once and then change the settings about the display state of the interface by himself or herself. Thus, the user is forced to do time-consuming complicated operations.
In order to overcome the problems described above, an object of the present invention is to provide a remote control system that allows every user with any of various levels of skills to operate his or her favorite remote controller and interface comfortably without doing the troublesome settings of the AV appliance or remote controller by himself or herself and to provide an appliance for such a remote control system.